| 90 |
Los Angeles Times
It could have done with fewer plot devices, but it is ultimately far more satisfying than countless less ambitious and risky films.
|
| 90 |
Washington Post
It is difficult to watch, but it's also impossible to take your eyes off the screen. It does not blench at the things that Hollywood routinely blenches at: substance abuse, dying, family dysfunction, love.
|
| 90 |
Chicago Reader
Sumptuously hued in its emotional and visual tones, this drama is also a fairy tale, its plot contrivances beautifully justified by its minimalism.
|
| 90 |
Village Voice
Norway's hallucinatory, edge-of-the-world beauty imbues the story with a woozy, alcoholic haze and a sense of the marginal spaces into which the messiest aspects of private life are shoved.
|
| 88 |
Miami Herald
A film of rare beauty, lifted by some of the best acting you may see in any film this year.
|
| 88 |
Boston Globe
It is an uncompromising family tale, one that's dark but lyrical and moving in its rendering of the ties that bind even the most dysfunctional families, despite valiant efforts to destroy them.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
It's clean and transparent, with no movie director tricks. The characters, not the montages, speak the loudest.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
Skarsgard and Headey deliver perfectly meshed lead performances in a small, beautifully acted film that will make you squirm.
|
| 80 |
Variety
A humanistic, warts-and-all battle of wills between a dissolute father and an emotionally ravaged daughter.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
Writer-director Hans Petter Moland (The Last Lieutenant, Zero Kelvin) has a fine eye for landscapes, but an even surer touch with actors.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Intelligent, moving and often beautifully photographed, Aberdeen boasts superb performances.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
A journey that goes from prosaic to existential. Director Hans Petter Moland's raw drama of father-daughter reconciliation features an excellent cast.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Tribune
In the end, grips us precisely because its actors are so utterly absorbed in their roles, so unfettered and nakedly expressive. This is the kind of acting we always look for, but rarely see.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Behind the narrative twists and contrived dramatic complications is a searing and scary look at dysfunction.
|
| 70 |
New Times (L.A.)
Headey, Skarsgård and Rampling flesh these people out marvelously, bringing them fully to life. It's almost a pity: The more real they become, the less pleasant is the time we spend with them.
|
| 63 |
Charlotte Observer
The characters, irritating as they can be at first, grow on you as they grow up.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
It's a raw, haunting experience.
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